Lithuanian president appoints Zilinskas as new interior minister

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Wednesday appointed Tomas Zilinskas, currently serving as a head of department at the Ministry of Interior, as the new minister of interior.

Grybauskaite met with Zilinskas on Wednesday to discuss priorities and urgent tasks for the ministry, ELTA news agency reported.

Zilinskas' term will last half a year as Lithuania faces national elections in October this year. The new minister will start his duties on Thursday.

Former Minister of Interior Saulius Skvernelis was forced to resign as he decided to run for parliament this fall with Lithuania's Peasant and Greens Union despite being delegated to the ministry by the Order and Justice party.

Grybauskaite said that six months before the elections "it was important to have a minister who is not a member of any political party but rather a professional with a required competence."

"The president underlined the importance of professional tasks and duties; this is what I am planning to do during my term on duty," Zilinskas was quoted as saying by ELTA.

The 38-year-old has been working within the Interior Ministry for 20 years, and served as a law-enforcement attache at the permanent Lithuania's mission to the EU for three years.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said he did not have doubts about Zilinskas' competence. "I appreciate his experience in international affairs. We can see he has strong ambition to show his professional competence in a short time," he told reporters on Wednesday. Endit